1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to inventory management, and more particularly, to a total inventory management system.
2. Related Art
Traditionally, solutions to inventory management, or excess management, focus strictly on inventory management in terms of either purchasing decisions, resource planning, or the necessity for scrap. For example, Agarwal et al. (Pub. No. U.S. 2003/0101107 A1) analyze a supply chain network to provide an optimal inventory level. Hayes (Pub. No. U.S. 2002/0178092 A1) provides a system to manage inventory based on cumulative demands for each of a plurality of time periods. Brockman (U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,300) provides a solution which compensates for consumption of inventory by maintaining a constant daily inventory size.
There are also some existing inventions that are related to estimating excess inventory, e.g., Kagami et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,496), Salvo et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,271) and Rand et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,414). However, those existing references estimate excess inventory based on only one time period—whether that be a specified date, or over the forecasted future—but not multiple time points and periods. In addition, those references only focus upon purchased stock rather than the entire bill of materials and components. Moreover, these references focus only on excess inventory and none deal with an optimal amount of inventory that is necessary to meet consumer requirements. Furthermore, none of the prior references identify an amount of inventory that is delayed in manufacturing yet is required to meet consumer requirements.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a method to identify and manage a total inventory including an optimal amount of inventory that is necessary to meet consumer requirements and an excess inventory exceeds consumer requirements. Also there is a need for a method to determine an amount of inventory that is delayed in manufacturing yet is required to meet consumer requirements. There is also need for a method to manage inventory for both finished goods and for components for multiple time points and periods.